This time around for the Chippewa Valley girls swim team, winning the Macomb County meet was no sure thing.

The Big Reds trailed Eisenhower by three points heading into the 400-yard freestyle relay, the final race of the afternoon Saturday. Chippewa Valley proceeded to win that event by more than five seconds, setting a county record of 3:46.16. Senior relay member Samantha Gray was joined by juniors Skyler Muzichuk, Leah Galloway and Erika Willson; the quartet broke its own county record set at last year’s meet.

Winning the final event propelled the Big Reds to their third consecutive county meet championship – and in turn propelled Chippewa Valley coach Tony Grice fully clothed into the pool.

“Getting wet after the meet is always great,” a dripping Grice said. “It came down to the wire this year, and it was a hard-fought battle by both teams. I guess I didn’t expect to be behind. (Eisenhower) swam awesome, made up the ground, and made it a good fight.”

“I’ve been practicing with it (hurt), but hadn’t really got to race yet. It’s not that bad.”

Eisenhower took first in two events, and had a stronger-than-expected finish as a team. Freshman Katherine Svisco won the 100 breaststroke for Ike (1:13.01). Ike’s winning 200 medley relay team (1:58.50) used the efforts of seniors Rachel Forsyth and Allison Kucharczyk, junior Jamie Svisco and freshman Ashlen Michalski.

Eisenhower coach Lisa Doherty had high praise for her group.

“Chippewa Valley has a great team and they swam well,” Doherty said. “I think we swam better than we should’ve. It should not have been that close, but we made it that close. Top three in three relays – it doesn’t get better than that.”

L’Anse Creuse North senior Taylor Zablocki placed first in the one meter diving with a score of 477.20. Romeo senior Elizabeth Rawlings was second with a 462.25.

Megan Palazzolo, a senior from Lakeview, won the 100 freestyle in another close race. Her time of 56.79 was exactly a tenth of a second ahead of Chippewa Valley’s Gray, and two-tenths ahead of Romeo freshman Natalie Krezemecki.

Palazzolo had little recollection of the race afterward, but had a clear motivation in mind.

“I really had no clue what was going on,” a beaming Palazzolo said. “All I knew is that I wanted to get first place in the county. That last 50, I knew I had it. I just wanted it so badly. Being county champ is a dream come true.”

Utica junior Allison Zalinski surprised herself in the 500 freestyle. She posted a Division 1 state qualifying time for the second year in a row (5:14.69), and blew her qualifying time off the grid by 16 seconds.

She seemed as shocked as anyone upon exiting the pool.

“I’m in disbelief,” Zalinski said. “That was really surprising. I saw people out of the corner of my eye on the right and I really started kicking. I took it home the best I could. Honestly, I never thought it would happen.”